Somedays sluice

Davey fire fighter in bits at the moment for cleaning purpose's and boy did it need it!
We should have a topic on pumps for longativity, you snooze you lose!

someday wrote: without questioning what there trying to achieve?

If you wish to catch fine to ulta-fine and microscopic gold your unit will do fine.
Failing this, what are you trying to achive?

Just trying to catch fine to microscopic gold! Have you not read any of my posts?

someday wrote:Davey fire fighter in bits at the moment for cleaning purpose's and boy did it need it!
We should have a topic on pumps for longativity, you snooze you lose!

Paint the inside with Kill-rust if you've got it apart.

someday wrote:Just trying to catch fine to microscopic gold! Have you not read any of my posts?

Yes I have.
And they tend 50/50 as very informative verses negative.
Sorry only trying to help

When their running on a regular basis all is good, when they sit for 12 months or more all is not good!
and Yep I can F up as much as the next person? Thanks for your opinion of me Prospekta or where you just trying to be nice?

Mate, believe me. It's a mine-field out there.
It helps to have a couple of great Masters.
It doesn't take long but it's all one great learning curve.
I run a cheap chinese pump and a highly modifed miners den sluice.
The micro gold I amalgamate from cons is unbelievable.

The only thing I need to brush up on is sluicing without water pressure? All's good, My moto is keep things different and then try to work out which is working better!

Very nice someday, excellent build quality there!

Going green with sluice envy

>Paint the inside with Kill-rust if you've got it apart.

While you are at it put some GT stripes on it for the sluice box racing.

someday wrote:The 1 1/2" lay flat with the pump at idle is rock hard, thats 20 meters.

OK now this tells me you can take your jetting out to 2.5 or 3 mm if you wish. Mate if you have your pump apart paint the inside as Prospekta said this stops electrolysis, that is a top pump you have there.
I would say it is time to take your unit out for a test run the area dose not need to be gold bearing. What you need to do is see how the jetting which is fitted now operates, and the water flow through the unit. Then put a few shovels of wash through the unit taking note of how it is clearing extra. By doing this it will give you so many answers and it is very much different to testing them at home. Been there done that. cheers mate

Thanks James will do! I'm making a couple of different size riffles, they only takes a couple of seconds to remove. The pump has 3 outlets so if I end up with to much flow?? I can slow it down by adjusting one of the other outlets.
Cheers Chris.

someday wrote:Thanks James will do! I'm making a couple of different size riffles, they only takes a couple of seconds to remove. The pump has 3 outlets so if I end up with to much flow?? I can slow it down by adjusting one of the other outlets.
Cheers Chris.

Cheers mate and good luck ..... But i think your unit will surprise you and work a little better than you think. cheers {looks to good not to }

Took it out for a test run, the 2 row holes no where near enough with 2mm holes for this unit! Put on the 3 row spray bars, now where talking.
Those 32 extra holes "What a difference" and my non intentional water fall actually works, I couldn't resit panning my gold tray, even thou the test was on barren ground?
Not so barren after all.
Hope to give the sluice a good work out over the weekend, providing our latest storm hasn't downed to many trees!

someday wrote:Took it out for a test run, the 2 row holes no where near enough with 2mm holes for this unit! Put on the 3 row spray bars, now where talking.
Those 32 extra holes "What a difference" and my non intentional water fall actually works, I couldn't resit panning my gold tray, even thou the test was on barren ground?
Not so barren after all.
Hope to give the sluice a good work out over the weekend, providing our latest storm hasn't downed to many trees!

Mate there is nothing like a test run to sort out any problems, i am glade it worked ok for you. cheers

Scored 3 grams from not a hole lot of digging, more testing than anything else. The gold pan worked a treat once the riffly ruber mat holdowna thingy is positioned in the right spot, 95% of the gold and black sands were forced to the back of the pan, very happy with that. Now I've just gotta lose the bolt down riffles? and tie Helium balloons to the fire fighter!
I should have started over when the original idea turned to poop

someday wrote: more testing than anything else.

Mate that’s the secret to success in this game. cheers

I stated I retrieved 95% of my gold in my gold pan/trap. Trying to put percentages into words. so I'll try it this way. !00% course gold, I recovered 95% in my gold trap/pan, 100% fine gold, I recovered about 50% in my gold pan/trap
100% ultra fines, I recovered about 20% in my gold pan/trap !
Mind you what I consider course gold is gold I can actually see without a magnifying glass!
If I was happy with course gold, my sluice could lose 3 feet?

someday wrote:I stated I retrieved 95% of my gold in my gold pan/trap. Trying to put percentages into words. so I'll try it this way. !00% course gold, I recovered 95% in my gold trap/pan, 100% fine gold, I recovered about 50% in my gold pan/trap
100% ultra fines, I recovered about 20% in my gold pan/trap !
Mind you what I consider course gold is gold I can actually see without a magnifying glass!
If I was happy with course gold, my sluice could lose 3 feet?

Mate your unit by the specks you have given is running spot on well done. cheers

James 101

Thank's James. The water fall which wasn't intentional I guess was a fluke in regards to height! any lower I could see a lot of material being flushed out of the pan due to the angle of water entry. The riffle thingy in the pan is adjustable Seems that was another fluke and not intentional, Just an easy way to hold down the mat for easy removal and cleaning?

someday wrote: The riffle thingy in the pan is adjustable Seems that was another fluke and not intentional, Just an easy way to hold down the mat for easy removal and cleaning?

Yep we use ours in the same manner. They work well hey. cheers

Got the four & a half inch angle grinder out and lobed of anything in it's way! Hmmmm Why I tried to re invent the wheel I have no idea. I'll Put some pics up soon!

Someday
Execellent job mate I have really enjoyed this thread the photos and the end result I have built a few river sluices my first one had all the bells and whistles and found I was loosing some gold the second one was simple with a bit of matting a few riffles and seems to work a treat....simple things are sometimes the best I take a lot from the old timers and how they worked then mix it with a bit of new tech and seems to work for me....anyway i really enjoyed this thread mate along with James 101 and marchu is the reason I still come on this forum great stuff mate....
Dave

Good or bad. I thought I would get your opinions before I finish doing what I'm doing? The idea here is total simplicity, 3 easily removed gold trays! Nothing else.

Thanks Skysite

G'day there Someday!

Sir, that's certainly a ring tailed, fried in butter, without-a-doubt a real 'Beaut' that you have there!

Let me make a few simple points for you to ponder.

Your "Rock Hard" lay flat hose is a good thing.

While most folks like the very common small 'pin hole' sprays to "Blast Apart" very hard to break up clay - well, if you are contending with just that sort of clay (a lot of the time) you should be using a small trommel. The rotating drum of the trommel, as well as 'beater bars' bolted to the inside of the drum and in the presence of enough high or low pressure water, more efficiently rips asunder the worst clay.

While I am not too keen on a hand crank modification - here is a tried and true style for one or two men shoveling:

http://billandlindaprospecting.com/alaskatrommel.html

And the original: http://gpex.ca/smf/uploads/_uploadedfiles_xxxxx/trommelplans.pdf

Milder amounts of softer clay can, with varying success, be broken down with a highbanker using small pin point sprays or larger, deluge sprays. An advantage to the larger deluge spray holes is that they are less prone to debris plug-up.

If debris plug-up becomes a problem (especially on small spray holes) consider a large strainer "Super Sock" to screen out the small 'bits' that get picked up and pumped through your water syster.

In the case I just mentioned I have used a 20 L bucket (modified by cutting panels from the sides) with the intake hose end going into the top. A burlap bag is then pulled over the entire deal and then finally a heavy weight is strung on a bungee cord and that cord is used to close off the top of the bag to the intake hose.

A very old and wise miner once mentioned that to stop spray bar plug-ups all you have to do is simply to filter the intake water to a mesh smaller than the spray hole size. Using a large (20 L) size intake screen size reduces the suction per square cm (or square inch, square foot, etc) by spreading that suction over a very large area.

One last observation that I draw from the G-1 highbanker that I use: Spray bar designs.

Some spray bars are "Y" shaped with the water coming in the bottom, non-spraying end. Some are "U" shaped with the water coming in one end of the spray tubes and then traveling all around to the far spray hole. IF, (IF) there isn't sufficient water pressure (for a variety of reasons) the spray pressure / efficiency diminishes as it is used up along the system. Side to side, or along the entire run, there isn't consistancy.

The uniqueness of the G-1 spray bar is that it is a square, with water input to the system at the middle of the high end of the input hopper. In addition, the "from both sides" water flow enters the low spray bar, and provides both pressure and volume through large deluge spray holes. The single spray bar is not glued into the assembly, allowing custom aiming of the impact spot. It also reduces splashing.

http://www.usprospector.com/index.php/concentrator

While I really delight in my G-1, any piece of equipment needs to be evaluated against the individual miner's specific circumstances. "Different strokes for different folks".

Just a few ideas for you to bounce around.

Joe

Thanks KAEOJ. I've got the water flow working perfectly, 3 row spray bars with 2 mm holes, firefighter at idle, water tank strainer with 1 mm holes, there's no aeration or cavitation
The first gold pan worked a treat in the original set up, so I figured this idea will greatly simplify clean up?
Open to suggestions before I finish it off!

Just as I expected

Hi Someday
That sluice is looking pretty good, do you mind posting a couple of pics so we can have a look at the whole set up.
cheers
Lee

Hi Lee. The sluice is still the same as in all the previous photo's, the only difference being, the riffles have been removed and replaced with 2 catch trays with a built in ramp style riffle at the head of each tray.
I'm also using spray bars with 3 rows of holes on each tube, this was only necessary due to the 100mm high water fall, all material and water lost momentum at this point, hence the need for the 3rd row of holes.
Cheers
Chris.

Well my sluice has had a work out, the last tray produced a very very small amount of supper fine gold dust. So all in all the design works a treat and clean up is simple!
The amount of gold recovered was rather disappointing at 5 grams
Cheers
Chris.

5 grams in what time period? cheers Pete.